Q: Dear Ethics Lawyer, With technology becoming more robust, I’ve gotten very comfortable with remote work, and clients do not seem to care where I am as long as I am responsive to them. We’ve recently purchased a vacation home in another state, and based on my experience, I’d like to spend substantial amounts of time working from that vacation home. I am not licensed to practice in that state, but I do not plan to open an office there or to seek or serve any clients in that state. All of the client relationships I currently serve are centered in states where I am licensed or I have appropriate local counsel. Is this plan viable?
Continue Reading December 1 Issue – Working Remotely in Another StateThe twice-monthly “Dear Ethics Lawyer” column is part of a training regimen of the Legal Ethics Project, authored by Mark Hinderks, former managing partner and counsel to an AmLaw 200 firm. Read More
Licensing and Multi-Jurisdictional Practice
December 16 Issue – Multijurisdictional Litigation Practice
By Mark Hinderks on
Q: Dear Ethics Lawyer, I am a lawyer admitted in a couple of Midwestern states, representing a client in a state where I am licensed that has a dispute with an opposing party in a state where I am not licensed. For various reasons, if the case cannot be settled and the facts develop as I expect, we will most likely file suit in that other state, at which time I’ll get local counsel and get admitted pro hac vice. Until then, can I rely upon the temporary practice provisions of Model Rule 5.5 to attend a pre-litigation settlement meeting without local counsel, and to do some pre-suit investigation and witness interviews, either there or by zoom from a state where I am licensed?
Continue Reading December 16 Issue – Multijurisdictional Litigation Practice